Wikipedia concludes a large-scale operation blocking hundreds of users centered on networks of for-pay edits violating the encyclopedia's guidelines.
(BBC)(The Guardian)(Ars Technica)
The death toll from a
Legionnaires' disease outbreak at a
Quincy, Illinois veterans home rises to at least seven with more than the current number of 32 sickened expected since the incubation period for illness can be up to two weeks.
(Reuters)
Thousands of refugees arrive in
Germany'sMünchen Hauptbahnhof from
Budapest. Police and firefighters on the scene provide them with food, water and medical aid even as more continue to arrive.
(thelocal)
Eight people have been killed and over 30 injured in riots in the
Indian state of
Manipur since the passage of three controversial land bills on Monday.
(IBN Live)
There have been 907 deaths last month in
El Salvador as a result of gang violence, a death rate not seen since the
Salvadoran Civil War of the 1980s.
(BBC)
Bodies of
Syrian refugees are found on a beach in
Turkey, including a
3-year-old boy, pictures of whose body spread virally and prompt grave international concern.
(Al Jazeera)
French prosecutors state that they believe "with certainty" that a piece of debris that had washed ashore on
Reunion Island came from the missing plane.
(BBC)
An explosion at an arms depot in
Yemen kills 45
Emirati soldiers who were part of the
Saudi led coalition.
(Yahoo)
Five
Bahraini soldiers are killed on the Saudi-Yemeni border while taking part in a military operation against
Yemen-based
Houthi militants.
(Reuters)
Clashes in and around
Tajikistan's capital
Dushanbe kill at least 17 people. Government representatives blame the attacks against security forces on former Deputy Defense Minister Aduhalim Nazarzoda, who fought against government forces in the
Tajikistan Civil War.
(BBC)
Gunmen kill 13 minority
Hazara men but spare the life of one woman among a traveling party in usually tranquil
Balkh Province. No group claims responsibility.
(AFP via Times of Oman)
In
Tampa, Florida, former
University of South Florida football player Elkino Watson is killed and Desmon Watson, another former player, is injured after an early morning stabbing after an argument broke out outside a nightclub in
Ybor City.
(WFLA)
In the second police officer shooting in the city in three days, a man ambushed a marked police SUV stopped at a traffic light in
Las Vegas by walking up and firing multiple rounds, striking one officer in the hand. The shooter was arrested.
(Fox News)
Crystal Cortes of
Dallas, Texas is charged with capital murder of dentist Kendra Hatcher on September 2. Her borrowed
Jeep Cherokee was seen entering a parking garage on video. She told police she conspired with an unidentified man who paid her to drive him to the garage with the intention of robbery.
(WFAA)[permanent dead link]
Turkish jets strike
PKK militant positions across south-east Turkey and
northern Iraq and deploy special forces to the Iraqi border following a deadly PKK attack which left at least 16 Turkish soldiers dead.
(Reuters)
Business and economy
The patent office in
IndiarejectsPfizer's petition for a patent on an
arthritis drug,
tofacitinib, re-affirming their rejection of the same drug in 2011. The drug is a chemical reformulation of the active compound in the medicine and thus the Indian Patent Office says that the company would have to establish that the compound for which it is seeking a patent is therapeutically more effective than the active compound.
(Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
Five people are killed as a small plane crashes in western
Colorado.
(USA Today)
Hundreds of people, tired of waiting for promised transportation, broke out from
Hungary's first migrant holding center near the
Serbian border, past police overwhelmed by their numbers, to start the march north toward
Budapest. The asylum seekers / migrants, now accompanied by groups of police, advanced along the edge of the main highway to the capital.
(AP via Global News)
In
Cass County, Missouri, a family of four is fired upon after they passed a slower vehicle, which then pulls up alongside and opens fire, hitting the father and a 2-year-old girl. Police believe the motive may have been road rage after flashing headlights.
(KCTV5)
In an education scandal in
Egypt, a top student, Mariam Malak, says she's a victim of corruption and fraud with the school or the examination board purposefully swapping her final exam papers with another pupil, while she is thus assigned "Zero"-grade for each of the seven subjects. 40,000 online rally for her via a Facebook support page while another top student reporting the same complaint.
(BBC)
U.K. Prime MinisterDavid Cameron confirms that two
ISIS militants,
UK citizens, Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin, were killed in Syria when a British drone attack hit their car on August 21, 2015. Both Khan and Amin had appeared in an ISIS recruitment video last year. They are alleged to have been plotting a terrorist attack on the UK.
(BBC)(The Guardian)
New Zealand temporarily bans the sale or lending of the book Into the River by Ted Dawe, pending a review which could see the book restricted long-term. This is the first time in 22 years that a book has been restricted to this extent in New Zealand.
(The Guardian)(Radio New Zealand Online)
Business and economy
German airline
Lufthansa cancels 84 long-haul flights as pilots go on strike over a proposed restructure plan.
(Bloomberg)
A massive sandstorm hits
Lebanon and
Syria as well as
Jordan,
Israel and
Egypt. The Lebanese Health Ministry said the storm caused the deaths of two women, and sent hundreds to hospitals with breathing difficulties. Particularly hard hit were the 1.1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, many in flimsy tents in informal campsites.
(Middle East Eye)(AP via CTV News)(Al Jazeera English Online)
During protests over a lack of mining jobs in
South Africa's
Limpopo province, demonstrators destroy 21 buses, a police station, and a municipal office as well as blocking roads from
Lephalale to
Marapong.
(ENCA)
At least 30 people have been killed in the southeastern
Turkish city of
Cizre following clashes between Turkish security forces and pro-Kurdish
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) supporters. Locals say Cizre has been "under siege" since the
military imposed a curfew.
(BBC)
The
United States Senate fails to pass a resolution blocking approval of the nuclear agreement with
Iran, meaning it will be formally adopted on October 19.
(New York Times)
Venezuelan opposition leader
Leopoldo López is convicted and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for allegedly inciting violence at anti-government rallies.
(AP)
Burundi's army chief General Prime Niyongabo survives an
assassination attempt after armed men attacked his motorcade on a busy road in the capital,
Bujumbura. Six people are killed in the attack.
(BBC),
(The New York Times)
At least three people die, 27 are injured, and 26 people are missing, the majority of them in and around
Jōsō city in Ibaraki Prefecture, as a result of floods and landslides in
Japan after heavy rainfall caused by
Tropical Storm Etau.
(Reuters)(The Independent-UK)
U.S. District Judge
Gary Feinerman sentences a
Federal Aviation Administration contractor, Brian Howard, to 12 years in prison for willfully destroying a Chicago-area air navigation facility using a September 26, 2014, fire which caused $100 million in damage.
(AP)
Chinese and
Indian troops face-off in the Burtse region of
northern Ladakh after Indian troops crossed the mutually-agreed patrolling line to dismantle a disputed watchtower the Chinese were building close to line.
(Economic Times)
The
Egyptian Armed Forces claim that an offensive against
ISIS militants in northern
Sinai over the past week has killed at least 164 insurgents with the loss of eight troops.
(AFP via Sky News)
A
PKK car bombing on a checkpoint kills two
Turkish police officers and injures five others in south-eastern Turkey. Also, Turkish
security forces impose a curfew in the region's largest city,
Diyarbakır.
(Reuters)
Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency (
消防庁) advises 2.8 million people to evacuate due to heavy flooding in the eastern region of the country.
(CNN)
Four inmates are killed and four more injured during violence that lasted a couple of minutes at a privately-operated prison in Cushing, Oklahoma (U.S.).
(N.Y. Daily News),
(The New York Times)
RussiancosmonautGennady Padalka's return from the
ISS on Saturday sets a new record for time in space, breaking the one fellow countryman
Sergei Krikalev set in 2005. Padalka totaled 879 days in space (2.41 years) over five flights.
(NPR)
Health and medicine
Doctors at Salamanca University Hospital in
Salamanca, Spain implant a
3-D printing-produced artificial
titaniumsternum (breastbone), and a portion of the ribs (as opposed to the current standard, a non-customized, flat piece of titanium, which can loosen over time) in a patient who had numerous cancerous tumors in that area, the first use of 3D printing technology to take the place of these specific body parts.
(Quartz, via MSN)
Ten people are killed, seven from the same family, in a
Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a government building in a southern suburb of
Sana'a, the
Yemen capital.
(Reuters)
Taliban insurgents storm a prison in the central
Afghan province of
Ghazni killing at least four prison officers and freeing about 350 prisoners. The deputy provincial governor of the Ghazni province says the attackers were well-organised and wearing military uniforms.
(BBC)
A
University of Notre Dame study finds significant correlation between substantial executive
stock options and future
product recalls. CEOs with abundant stock options get a huge payoff when the company performs well but endure minute consequences when it doesn’t.
(Fortune)
Shannon Lamb, a
professor at
Delta State University who was suspected of two murders in the
U.S. state of
Mississippi—the woman he was living with in
Gautier and a fellow professor at the Delta State campus in
Cleveland—dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while being pursued by police.
(Fox News)
In the U.S.,
Rowan County, Kentucky county clerk
Kim Davis, involved in the litigation over
same-sex marriage, states she will not block her deputies from issuing marriage licenses, but will not authorize them personally (her name will not appear on them, and they will state that they were given under a federal judicial order).
(Reuters)
The
first direct observation of gravitational waves was made on 14 September 2015 and was announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016. This was also the first observation of a binary black hole merger.
Health and medicine
The
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issues a recommendation stating that, in consultation with their doctor and pharmacist, and provided the risk of
gastrointestinal bleeding and the very rare risk of certain
hemorrhagic strokes do not outweigh the benefits in individual cases, that people aged 50 to 70 (especially those aged 50-60 and with a 10 percent risk or higher of
cardiovascular disease, or CVD; mindful that the risk of bleeding, which can be dangerous, goes up as one ages) should take low-dose aspirin, for a period of at least 10 years, for preventive benefits against CVD and
heart attack, as well as
colorectal cancer. The evidence is inconclusive for those not at very high risk who are over 70, and below 40, and there is only weak evidence for prevention of
lung cancer,
breast cancer, and
prostate cancer.
(U.S. Preventive Services),
(NY Times Blogs)
Houthi militants backed by Yemeni
troops reportedly seize control of al-Rabu’ah, a town in
Saudi Arabia's southwestern
Asir region near the
Yemeni border, forcing Saudi forces to pull out of the area.
(Press TV)
Hewlett-Packard, which has struggled for years in a declining
PC market, will cut up to 33,300 jobs over the next three years, mostly in its enterprise business.
(Reuters)
New York City Police and US federal agents arrest members of an international crime syndicate that have been selling cheap, but toxic,
synthetic marijuana. In New York alone, 2,300 people have ended up in emergency rooms in the last two months. The seizure includes two warehouses full of synthetic drugs in the
Bronx, one of the largest raids ever.
(CBS News)
Arab Coalition warplanes bomb
Yemen's capital
Sana'a targeting a high-profile
Houthi leader's house. At least nine civilians are killed in the attack.
(Reuters)
American Airlines halts flights for 90 minutes at its
major hubs in
Chicago,
Dallas, and
Miami because of a computer glitch. The incident produces a cascading effect of delays throughout all US airlines.
(UPI)
Brazil'sSupreme Court issues a decision that bans corporate money in elections. This ruling comes as a major investigation is underway in the country on a campaign financing bribery and corruption scandal.
(Singapore Today Online),
(AP via Fox News)
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency orders
Volkswagen to fix nearly 500,000 VW and
Audidiesel cars from model years 2009-2015 that include software that circumvents EPA
emissions standards. The company's illegal use of so-called "defeat devices" threaten public health, in some cases releasing 40 times the pollution standard of
nitrogen oxide emissions. The company faces possible U.S. fines of up to
$37,500 per vehicle for the violations which could total more than $18 billion.
(AP via Fox News),
(EPA)
In
India, about 2.3 million people respond to the
state of
Uttar Pradesh's announcement of 368 low-level government jobs openings that pay 16,000
rupees ($240) a month. At least 255 of the applicants had a
doctorate and over 200,000 had
master's degrees.
(AP)
Governor of ArizonaDoug Ducey states that 21-year-old Leslie Allen Merritt Jr. is ballistically linked to four incidents and arrested in
Glendale, Arizona after a SWAT raid. Merritt was previously charged twice in 2013, the first for failing to stop at the scene of a damaged vehicle, and the second for assault and criminal damage. Police state that he is known to hold anti-government and anti-police views. He is charged with four counts each of aggravated assault, criminal damage, disorderly conduct, discharging a firearm within city limits, carrying out a
drive-by shooting, and intentional acts of terrorism; and his bail is set at $1 million.
(ABC15),
(KOB),
(HEAVY),
(ABC News),
(Q13FOX),
(AZ Central),
(CNN),
(Yahoo News),
(NBC News)
A
Saudi-led military coalition bombards government buildings and residential neighborhoods in the
Yemeni capital,
Sana'a, killing about 30 people, including civilians. Rescuers continue searching for other possible victims buried under the rubble.
(AP via Orange County Register),
(Xinhuanet)
Croatian prime minister
Zoran Milanović says Croatia will 'force'
Hungary to accept migrants by sending them to the Hungarian border. Hungary responded angrily calling Milanović "pathetic" and accused Croatia of
human smuggling.
(BBC)
After having arrived in
Havana, Cuba, the day before, Pope Francis, in the third trip by an incumbent Pope to Cuba, presides over a Papal Mass in Havana's
Plaza de la Revolución, and pleads for Colombia and the
FARC rebels to make a final peace, also noting the better relations between the U.S., which he will visit next, and Cuba. He holds a meeting with Cuban President
Raúl Castro, and meets for a talk and exchange of gifts with former Cuban President
Fidel Castro.
(ABC),
(USA Today),
(WSJ),
(The New York Times)
At least 13 migrants died when a
ferry and their inflatable dinghy collided off the northwestern Turkish port of
Çanakkale. Twenty people were rescued while another 13 are still missing.
(BBC),
(i24 News)
U.S. Secretary of StateJohn Kerry says that the United States will accept 85,000 refugees from the world in 2016, up from this year's 70,000 refugees, and will increase to 100,000 refugees in 2017.
(Washington Post)
Austrian officials report 11,000 migrants crossed into the country from Hungary on Saturday, and another 7,000 are expected today. Seven trains are scheduled to transport 3,500 of these travelers to Germany.
(CBS News)
Government forces target al-Shaar neighborhood in eastern Aleppo city with surface-to-surface missiles, hitting a crowded public market, killing more than 30 civilians and dozens wounded.
(Ara News)
U.S. officials say
Russia has begun flying
drones on surveillance missions over
Syria in what would be Russia's first military air operations in the country since the recent military build-up at a Syrian
airbase in
Latakia.
(Reuters)
Hungary's parliament passes a law allowing the
Hungarian military to help handle the migrant crisis at its borders with
Serbia and
Croatia, including the right to use non-lethal force such as rubber bullets, pyrotechnical devices,
tear gas grenades or net guns.
(Reuters)
In
Auckland, New Zealand, an extradition hearing for
Kim Dotcom, former owner of a file sharing website, for alleged copyright infringement,
racketeering, and money laundering begins, seeking to bring him to the U.S.
(BBC)
At least eight people are killed and 45 wounded in shootings over the weekend across
Chicago.
(Fox Chicago)
A
Denver, Coloradofederal jury convicts Harold Henthorn of murder in the death of his wife Toni Henthorn, who fell off a cliff as they hiked in Colorado's
Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate their wedding anniversary. His previous wife had also died in suspicious circumstances.
(AP)
Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell is sentenced to 28 years for Salmonella typhimurium-tainted
peanut butter, the most severe punishment ever handed out to a producer in a foodborne illness case. In late 2008 and early 2009, nine people died and at least 714 people in 46 states, half of them children, fell ill. Parnell and his brother were convicted in September 2014 of 71 criminal counts. His brother Michael Parnell is sentenced to 20 years, and the plant's former quality control manager Mary Wilkerson is sentenced to five years.
(LA Times),
(USA Today)
Politics and elections
Political parties in
Northern Ireland hold talks to save a power-sharing agreement following claims that Irish nationalist militants were involved in the murder of a former operative.
(Reuters)
The coup leader General
Gilbert Diendéré says that he is ready to hand over power to transitional authorities as the
army marches on the capital
Ouagadougou.
(BBC)
Pope Francis arrives in the U.S. from his last stop in
Cuba,
Santiago de Cuba, at
Joint Base Andrews (formerly, Andrews Air Force Base), near
Washington D.C., to start his first tour of the
United States. He is received by U.S. President
Barack Obama, his wife, U.S. First Lady
Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha Obama, Marian Lois Robinson, U.S. Vice President
Joseph R. Biden, his wife, U.S. Second Lady Dr.
Jill Biden, two Biden granddaughters, the Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S. Archbishop
Carlo Maria Vigano, military and base leaders, and Washington's Cardinal
Donald Wuerl. He will be received tomorrow morning in a second arrival ceremony, at the White House, and will meet with the President there.
(The Guardian)
Volkswagen says that 11 million vehicles could have suspect emission control software and it has set aside 6.5 billion euros ($7.2 billion US dollars) for possible fines, repairs, and litigation.
(NBC News)
A tornado, with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, strikes
Johns Island, South Carolina with no deaths or injuries, but 75 homes are damaged, 10 heavily.
(AP, via MSN)
Health
The
BBC reports that
Nigeria will be removed from the list of countries where
polio is endemic.
(BBC)
At least four
Armenian soldiers are killed following an
Azeri attack near the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh region. Yesterday, Azerbaijan shelled several ethnic Armenian villages, leaving three civilians dead.
(Reuters)
Armenia's Defense Ministry declares that it will "use artillery and missiles" to repel attacks by
Azerbaijan following the deaths of four soldiers in the
Nagorno-Karabakh region, raising fears of all-out war between the rival countries.
(Fox News)
Tropical Storm Niala forms off the coast of the
Hawaiian islands with the likelihood of heavy rain on the island of
Hawaii (Big Island) over the weekend.
(Accuweather)
Air-strikes by
Saudi helicopter gunships on the Yemeni village of Bani Zela in
Yemen's
Red Sea border area with Saudi Arabia kill at least 25 people.
(Euronews)
France says it has carried out its first air-strikes against the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant within
Syria, destroying a training camp in the east of the country. Previously, France had only carried out air-strikes in
Iraq with consent of the Iraqi government.
(Reuters)
An Arab coalition air-strike on a wedding party in Wahijah, a village near the
Red Sea port city of
Mocha in southern Yemen, reportedly leaves as many as 131 people dead, making it the deadliest coalition attack on
Yemeni civilians in the conflict so far. The
UN secretary-general condemns the attack.
(BBC),
(USA TODAY)
Government forces backed by the Arab coalition capture
Marib Dam, one of the Houthi militant’s remaining strongholds in
Marib Governorate, opening the path to a key highway leading to
Sana'a.
(The National)
Royal Dutch Shell halts its drilling program for oil and gas off the coast of
Alaska citing high costs and a challenging regulatory environment.
(Bloomberg)
Separatists won a clear majority of seats in
Catalonia's parliament (72 out of 135) in this weekend's election that saw a record turnout of 78 percent. The winners will seek to unilaterally declare independence within 18 months. Spain's constitution does not allow any region to break away.
Spanish Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy vows to fight the separatist plan.
(BBC),
(AP via U.S. News & World Report)
The upper chamber of the Russian parliament approves a law allowing the use of the
Russian Armed Forces outside its borders, following a request by Russian President
Vladimir Putin.
(The News Hub)
Russia begins airstrikes against anti-government targets in
Syria following a request from
PresidentBashar al-Assad. A U.S. official said the air attack struck near the Syrian city of
Homs, where the official said ISIS currently does not have a major presence.
(NPR),
(ABC News),
(Washington Post)
An
Iranian fishing boat loaded with weapons, including rockets and anti-tank shells, is intercepted and seized in the
Arabian Sea, 150 miles southeast of the Omani
Port of Salalah, by Arab coalition forces.
Saudi Arabia has previously accused Iran of supplying weapons to
Houthi militants in
Yemen.
(BBC)
Hurricane Joaquin passes over ocean with temperatures near 86°F (30°C) - the warmest since record keeping began in 1880.
(National Hurricane Center),
(UPI),
(Reuters)
Hurricane Joaquin reaches maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and becomes a
Category 3 hurricane. The storm, with additional strengthening expected, should linger over the
The Bahamas through October 2 before heading toward the U.S.
(ABC News),
(NHC)
The hurricane is expected to pass
The Bahamas tomorrow, bringing tropical-storm-force winds, storm surges, coastal flooding, and 5-10 inches of rain. While the European forecast model suggests Joaquin will avoid the
U.S. East Coast, the American model predicts it will ram into
Virginia,
Maryland, or
North Carolina this weekend.
(NBC News),
(NHC)